


gentle rain

by rarmaster



Category: Tales of Symphonia, Tales of the Rays (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, I'LL LINK TO A BREAKDOWN OF WHAT HAPPENED IN THE KHARLAN QUESTS IN THE NOTES DW, Yuan centric, also despite being engaged there's like basically No Romantic Content here so, slaps it in the gen tag, then again rays has. so much plot its insane lmao, writes fic for a gacha game i guess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-18
Updated: 2020-05-18
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:36:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24245884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rarmaster/pseuds/rarmaster
Summary: Seeing as he's just been yanked into a world he doesn't recognized, discovers his fiance isn't dead, and then has said fiance get possessed and nearly try to kill him? Yuan thinks he's valid for needing to dissociate his ass off for like twenty minutes.(That's okay, Martel agrees with him.)
Relationships: Yuan Ka-Fai/Martel Yggdrasill
Comments: 4
Kudos: 15





	gentle rain

**Author's Note:**

> "rar what hte fuck is this" a totrays fic becuase totrays is insane and came for my fucking blood!!! [here's](https://twitter.com/rarsneezes/status/1246488908956758017) a breakdown of the entirety of the quests leading up to this,
> 
> but [here](https://rarsneezes.dreamwidth.org/25896.html) and [here](https://rarsneezes.dreamwidth.org/26136.html) are the two most relevant bits
> 
> update: someone who wasn't me translated the whoel event! [you can watch it here!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBb96Uty4UI&list=PLcEBa4Yo9VuIKauZdjf8PNJPqJj0DUKbw&index=9%22)
> 
> anyway sometimes you just need to write some lowstakes hurt/comfort!!!!!!!!

This is not the worst day of Yuan’s life. In fact, by all accounts, he should really rank it as one of his best. Despite being yanked unwillingly to a world he does not recognize, he’s been reunited with the entirety of his family, all of which he thought were dead ( _or in Kratos’ case, floating somewhere in space on Derris-Kharlan_ ). All of his family, including Martel, somehow, miraculously. He should be the happiest man alive, right now.

Of course there was that whole issue with Martel getting possessed, and having to fight her, and… all of that. So it’s been a mixed bag.

And if someone says _one more_ word to him, he _is_ going to snap.

Overstimulated is probably the fastest way to explain how Yuan feels, right now. And who’s surprised about that? His days haven’t been _this_ exciting since Mithos died and Kratos left. He’s had plenty to do, of course. Renegades to relocate, a world to help rebuild, Lloyd and his friends to either begrudgingly interact with or otherwise avoid, depending on his mood. But all the stress he’s put up with lately has been minimal. Money problems. Housing problems. “There are too many people in my room and I want them gone”, problems.

None of those even hold a candle to _having to fight your possessed fiancé and try not to hurt her too severely while she is very definitely trying to murder you._

And the getting relocated thing. That also sucks. He had _plans_ for today, and now he isn’t going to get to do any of them! And—for all that he _is_ happy to see his family again, he just… wants some space, for a little while. To process. To decompress.

That’s probably why he’s walking a little ahead of everyone else, despite being the only one here who has basically no idea where they’re _supposed_ to be going. He has a general idea of the direction, at least, and if he’s wrong someone will tell him. And that’s that.

Mithos and Martel are somewhere behind him, and they left Kratos talking to Lloyd ( _good_ ). Wherever the rest of Lloyd’s friends are Yuan doesn’t know, and because they aren’t within twenty feet of him, he doesn’t care. Of course that’s still plenty of people, and his enhanced hearing means he’ll have to hear them unless he gets significantly further away ( _which he doesn’t want to do, not from Martel_ ) so Yuan takes the logical course of action for someone who wants to cut down on how much stimulation he’s getting and also is an angel who has complete and utter control over all five of his senses.

He turns off his hearing.

The silence is a fucking blessing.

Of course the local mana is still a clusterfuck after the battle they put it through, so that isn’t a great feeling, and Yuan _would_ like to stop walking sooner rather than later. But it’s a start.

He’s busy enough lightly dissociating that he doesn’t realize Martel’s jogged to catch up with him until she’s stopped in front of him, flapping her hand for his attention.

 _‘Are you okay?’_ Martel signs, a second before Yuan can turn his hearing back on. He blinks at her, surprised, but then supposes if she called his name he certainly didn’t hear it, and supposes further that there’s no reason Mithos or Kratos hasn’t explained this angel thing to her, yet. Or… how far into the angel transformation process did Martel get, anyway? Yuan doesn’t remember, and he hates that, but.

‘ _I’m fine,’_ Yuan signs back. And though, with anyone else, he might leave it at that… this is Martel. He can trust her with this. It’s not like she _doesn’t_ know. So he tacks on: ‘ _Just overstimulated._ ’

‘ _Thought you might be,’_ Martel answers, and. It’s a little thing, but Yuan realizes that for all he’s used sign with his Renegades and _isn’t_ out of practice, the dialect clearly has changed some, in four thousand years, and he didn’t even notice. ( _He can’t really remember the last time he spoke at length through sign to Mithos or Kratos, though, so maybe it’s no surprise he didn’t notice._ )

Oh well. He still understands what Martel’s trying to say. ‘ _Is there anything I can do to help?’_ she asks. ‘ _What do you need?_ ’

‘ _To stop being a person for twenty minutes._ ’

Martel’s laughter is clear, even if Yuan can’t hear it. When she smiles at him, it’s fond.

‘ _Do you want me to leave you alone?’_ she asks.

Yuan quickly shakes his head. ‘ _Stay._ ’

The day hasn’t been great, but he doesn’t know what he’ll do if he has to spend the rest of it without Martel somewhere near him. He just got her back. It may be weird, it may take some getting used to, it may not be _permanent,_ but he still doesn’t want her out of his sight right now. That would be worse, he thinks.

‘ _Okay, I’ll stay,_ ’ Martel assures him, her smile still fond, her eyes shining. ‘ _Should we stop here for a while? If we go much further we’re going to have to start interacting with people, and I understand if you would rather…’_

Yuan’s not sure if he’s glad or embarrassed that he apparently hasn’t changed so much in four thousand years that Martel can still read him like an open book. He appreciates it, though. He finds himself smiling, despite himself. He supposes that’s easy, though, considering Martel _is_ the love of his life. She should be able to get a smile out of him, shouldn’t she? Thinking about how much he missed her makes his heart ache more than he can handle—it’s almost like old times, and that’s maybe the strangest thing of all.

Yuan tries to think of something witty to say, but fails—he blames Martel for that, too. Instead of anything witty he just gets out a hesitant little: ‘ _Yeah, could we?’_

‘ _I’ll let Mithos know to go on ahead without us,’_ Martel says. Yuan’s glad she offers, instead of just assuming he didn’t mind Mithos sticking around.

He loves Mithos, despite everything. Of course he still does. But… Even if Mithos appears to be completely sane right now, and hugely apologetic, never mind completely lacking in murderous intent… Yuan still would prefer if the little brat buzzed off elsewhere for a while. So when Yuan watches Mithos trail back to Kratos ( _sorry Kratos. Just kidding, Yuan isn’t sorry_ ) and then Martel make her way back over to him, it’s like another weight off his shoulders.

Just one more to deal with.

‘ _Can we move a little further away from… here, though?’_ Yuan asks, once he has Martel’s attention. ‘ _The mana’s… bad.’_

He really doesn’t want to put it in any more specific words, not right now. He’s decided it’s another thing he’ll just shelve until he stops feeling like a vaguely-Yuan-shaped storm cloud.

Martel blinks at him, surprised, and then she realizes. ‘ _Oh, yes! I suppose it would be…’_ Her face gets dark. She doesn’t want to finish that sentence either, clearly. That’s alright.

( _Maybe they should talk about it, about all of that, but again: Yuan doesn’t feel Yuan enough to do much thinking at all, right now, let alone talking. They can do that later._ )

For now, Martel starts in a direction that’s still away from the field-turned-battleground, but not in the direction they were heading before, and Yuan follows after her. Martel doesn’t talk, and she sits and Yuan sits a fair distance away from her ( _not person-shaped enough to do physical contact, right now_ ) she doesn’t say anything at all.

Yuan missed this maybe the most, he thinks. It’s been a long four thousand years, with Kratos and Mithos at increasingly spotty amounts of being-on-speaking-terms with, and with no one else he ever quite got _that_ close to besides them. But with Martel… he doesn’t have to explain anything. And she doesn’t expect anything of him, she’s willing to just sit here while he decompresses, readjusts.

And that’s nice.


End file.
